Amy Winehouse, Led Zeppelin and Steps: A look at the latest music DVDs

An engrossing tribute to late soul songstress
Amy Winehouse, an epic live concert from rockers Led Zeppelin and the sell-out gig from reformed 90s pop group Steps are just some of the latest music DVDs out this week.

Amy Winehouse At The BBC is a solid souvenir of a soul diva (Picture: Universal Island)

When was the first time you witnessed British soul diva Amy Winehouse? For TV viewers, it would have been 2003, with a typically sharp and sweet performance of Stronger Than Me from her debut album Frank. That clip features on a Jools Holland-led tribute DVD, which forms part of a solid quadruple-disc souvenir,Amy Winehouse At The BBC(Universal Island).

Since Winehouse’s untimely death last year, there have been a few official posthumous releases (including the Lioness album) and they have thankfully been handled with care. Besides the Jools sets, this engrossing package includes a live CD, a concert DVD recorded at London’s Porchester Hall and an Arena doc recalling Winehouse’s gig at Ireland’s tiny Dingle Festival in 2006. The latter disc features intimate takes from Back To Black, and a poignant, witty interview when Winehouse plans Christmas with her boyfriend.

Music films are often presented as widescreen spectacle and there’s an epic example in Led Zeppelin’sCelebration Day(Atlantic), capturing the classic rock legends’ 2007 reunion at London’s O2 arena. Celebration Day’s recent cinema screenings have been an event in their own right but the DVD summons the bombast of what was a seriously hot ticket. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham’s powerhouse-drumming son Jason don’t need any embellishment – their supremely assured, beefy blues-rock tears the O2’s roof off, including seminal opener Good Times Bad Times, much-sampled anthems (Kashmir, Whole Lotta Love), and even a rip-roaring live debut – for 1976 track For Your Life.

There’s also a cinematic touch toColdplay Live 2012(EMI): a globe-trotting film from the British pop rockers’ Mylo Xyloto tour. Immaculately shot with sweeping vistas and slo-mo, it’s part concert DVD (packing in several albums’ worth of material, including the brooding Yellow), part dreamy travelogue. There’s still a strange contrast between Chris Martin’s earnest persona and the stadium-trouncing superstar on stage.

Finally, the 2012 sell-out arena reunion of linedancing popsters (and sometime frenemies) Steps is captured inThe Ultimate Tour Live(Universal) DVD, again recorded at London’s O2. More than ever, Steps resemble a live dance-along videogame, but there’s fizzy fun in the hits (Tragedy, 5678, A Deeper Shade Of Blue) – and in watching the quintet gritting their teeth as they shimmy.